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Nicholas Mangione

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Nicholas Bernard Mangione
Born(1925-02-17)February 17, 1925
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedNovember 2, 2008(2008-11-02) (aged 83)
Towson, Maryland, U.S.
OccupationReal estate developer
Known forFounding Lorien Health Services
Spouse
Mary Cuba
​
(m. 1950)​
Children10
Relatives

Nicholas Bernard Mangione (February 17, 1925 – November 2, 2008) was an American real estate developer. He founded Lorien Health Services and owned the radio station WCBM as well as several country clubs, hotels, and resorts in suburban Baltimore, Maryland, including Hayfields Country Club and Turf Valley.[1] Mangione's descendants are a prominent family in Maryland business and politics.[2]

Early life and education

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Mangione was born in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood on February 17, 1925.[3] He was the oldest son and second of four children[4] born to a poor Italian immigrant family.[5] His father, Louis, born in Enna, Sicily[6] was illiterate and worked in the city water department until he died from pneumonia when Nicholas was 11 years old.[1]

Mangione sold newspapers and peddled shopping bags at the Belair Market and attended the St. James the Less Commercial School. He was working his first full-time job as an accounts receivable clerk at age 15 and later worked for a different company as a secretary-bookkeeper. In January 1943, a month before Mangione turned 18 years old, he enlisted in the United States Navy and reported to the destroyer USS Caperton. While serving aboard USS Caperton, he fought in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.[1] He returned home on leave in 1945,[7] afterwards attending the Maryland Institute evening school (now the Maryland Institute College of Art) until 1949, when he became a bricklaying contractor.[1]

Career

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In 1949, Mangione founded Mangione & Co., a contract-based construction company.[4] In 1977, Mangione founded the nursing home company Lorien Health Services.[8] His son Louis Mangione later became the owner.[9] In July 1970, Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. appointed Mangione to the Baltimore City Board of Education.[10] Mangione's term expired on December 31, 1970, and he was succeeded by Stephen McNierney.[11]

Mangione purchased Turf Valley in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 1978.[12][13] The club underwent multiple renovations and expansions under Mangione's ownership.[14] In 1988, a group of Black businessmen in Howard County criticized Mangione for not hiring enough minority managers at the country club, to which Mangione responded, "I have eight of my kids there. Do they expect me to fire one of them and put somebody else in their place?"[15] Turf Valley later became the center of a boycott after Mangione's nephew and resort manager Frederick B. Grimmel Jr. called a Black NAACP member the N-word during a taped conversation;[16] Mangione was reluctant to fire his nephew, first suspending Grimmel with pay but eventually firing him after pressure from the Black community increased.[15] As part of Grimmel's removal, Mangione signed an agreement calling on the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Relations Office to conduct sensitivity training for club employees and for the Howard County Office of Human Rights to investigate whether the country club was engaging in racially discriminatory hiring practices. The Humans Rights Office did so, and found no evidence of hiring discrimination.[17] Grimmel was rehired several months after his firing, and Mangione later told The Baltimore Sun that he believed he was unfairly criticized by the NAACP.[15]

Mangione alleged that people were skeptical of his success as a businessman because they assumed he must have received money from the Italian Mafia. He told The Baltimore Sun he had experienced discrimination in the 1970s at other country clubs such as the Baltimore Country Club and the Elkridge Club, stating that "It was because I was Italian, plain and simple."[1]

In December 1986, Mangione purchased the 474-acre Hayfields farm in Hunt Valley, Maryland, for a price between $4 and $5 million, with the intention of developing a 1,600-house community.[18][19] Hayfields's previous owner, I. H. "Bud" Hammerman, similarly sought to redevelop the farmland into a 1,250-unit residential community, which failed to get zoning approval in 1980 and 1984 after facing opposition from community residents.[20][21] At the time of Mangione's purchase, Hayfields included seven historic structures, including an 186-year-old farmhouse[22] that housed Union and Confederate troops during the American Civil War.[23] After his initial proposal was rejected by the Baltimore County Planning Board in 1988,[24] Mangione proposed another plan to redevelop 226 of Hayfields's 474 acres to build 50 high-priced houses and a golf course on Hayfields,[21] which was approved by the county zoning board in July 1995.[25] Mangione then proposed another plan to redevelop the remaining 248 acres,[22] which was approved by the Baltimore County Planning Board in May 1996.[26] The Hayfields Country Club opened on July 24, 1998.[27]

Mangione purchased the conservative talk radio station WCBM in 1986. A supporter of conservative radio, Mangione later purchased two other conservative talk radio stations, WWLG and WASA.[3][28]

Nicholas Mangione and his family had close ties with the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, which has a ward named in honor of Mangione, and where all of his descendants have been born since 1938.[29][30]

Personal life

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Mangione had 10 children with his wife Mary Mangione (née Cuba), six of whom graduated from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.[3] As of December 2024, he had 30 grandchildren, including Nino Mangione, who is a state delegate in the Maryland General Assembly, and Luigi Mangione, who, in December 2024, was arrested and later charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing of Brian Thompson, who was the CEO of United Healthcare.[31]

Mangione died at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson after suffering a stroke on November 2, 2008.[1] His wife, Mary, died in 2023.[32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Kelly, Jacques (November 4, 2008). "Nicholas B. Mangione, self-made real estate developer, dies at 83". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  2. ^ Thompson, Adam (December 10, 2024). "Luigi Mangione, person of interest in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting, is related to prominent Maryland family". CBS News Baltimore. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Fenton, Justin; Smith, Brenna (December 9, 2024). "Luigi Mangione's sprawling family found success after patriarch's rise". The Baltimore Banner. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Atwood, Liz (May 10, 1989). "Mangione heads family enterprise". The Baltimore Sun. p. 67. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Solomon, Libby (June 19, 2018). "Meet the candidates for state delegate in the District 42B primary". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  6. ^ www.familysearch.org https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GYJX-XPW. Retrieved December 11, 2024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ "Seaman Tells Of Ducking Heisler Got In The Pacific". The Evening Sun. March 26, 1945. p. 24. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Sundby, Alex; Li, Emma; Ferris, Layla; Doan, Laura (December 10, 2024). "What we know about Luigi Mangione, suspect charged in UnitedHeathcare CEO's killing". CBS News. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  9. ^ Kilgannon, Corey; Baker, Mike; Broadwater, Luke; Hubler, Shawn (December 9, 2024). "Suspect in C.E.O. Killing Withdrew From a Life of Privilege and Promise". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  10. ^ Parshall, Gerald (July 8, 1970). "Mangione Appointed to School Board; Tinley Resigns". The Evening Sun. p. 80. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  11. ^ "3 Named To School Board". The Baltimore Sun. January 31, 1971. p. 95. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  12. ^ De Marco, Donna (July 7, 1997). "Mangione family adding more turf". Baltimore Business Journal. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  13. ^ Jones, Sabrina (September 4, 2003). "Family Makes Resort Its Turf". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 10, 2024. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  14. ^ Dieter, Lee C., ed. (December 1988). "December - Election Meeting - Turf Valley Country Club" (PDF). Mid-Atlantic Association of Golf Course Superintendents Newsletter. Vol. XXXXI, no. 10. Mid-Atlantic Association of Golf Course Superintendents. pp. 1, 5. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via MSU Libraries.
  15. ^ a b c Atwood, Liz (May 10, 1989). "Mangione heads family enterprise". The Baltimore Sun. p. 77. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  16. ^ Shen, Fern (January 23, 1989). "Howard County Racial Slur Still Rankles". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  17. ^ Clark, Michael J. (February 24, 1989). "Howard office finds no job bias at Turf Valley". The Baltimore Sun. p. 45. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  18. ^ Erlandson, Robert A. (December 18, 1986). "Haysfield buyer wants to build $500,000 homes". The Baltimore Sun. p. 53. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Builder seeks land agreement". The Evening Sun. December 19, 1986. p. 58. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "From one farm to 171 houses?". The Evening Sun. November 13, 1991. p. 54. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ a b Gilbert, Patrick (March 3, 1995). "Developer rebuffed on rezoning plea for project at Hunt Valley estate". The Baltimore Sun. p. 25. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ a b Atwood, Liz (February 19, 1996). "Developer to submit plan for Hayfields". The Baltimore Sun. p. 17. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Erlandson, Robert A. (August 26, 1996). "Preservationists join Hayfields battle". The Baltimore Sun. p. 16. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Carson, Larry (May 16, 1988). "'Hayfields', other tracts to stay farms, planners say". The Evening Sun. p. 33. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Carson, Larry (July 4, 1995). "Hayfields golf plan gains OK". The Baltimore Sun. p. 9. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Atwood, Liz (May 3, 1996). "Board accepts Hayfields project". The Baltimore Sun. p. 15. Retrieved December 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Atwood, Liz (July 22, 1998). "Gold-plated golf courses tee off". The Baltimore Sun. p. 1. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  28. ^ "New York murder suspect hails from prominent Catholic Mangione family in Baltimore". The Catholic Review. Retrieved December 11, 2024.
  29. ^ "The Countdown Begins..." Greater Baltimore Medical Center. September 12, 2022. Archived from the original on December 9, 2024. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  30. ^ Dodds, Io (December 10, 2024). "Luigi Mangione's family: Prominent relatives 'shocked and devastated' by his murder arrest". The Independent. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  31. ^ Ng, Greg (December 9, 2024). "Man questioned in UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing has ties to Maryland". WBAL-TV. Retrieved December 9, 2024. Luigi Mangione is the cousin of Baltimore County Delegate Nino Mangione, R-District 42A, the lawmaker's office confirmed.
  32. ^ "The Latest: Suspect in United Healthcare CEO's killing charged with weapons, forgery, other charges". KPRC-TV. Associated Press. December 9, 2024. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
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